The Pillars of the Earth: episode four

Spoiler alert: This weekly blog is for those who have been watching The Pillars of the Earth. Don't read ahead if you haven't seen episode four yet – and if you have seen later episodes please remember that UK viewers may not.

"He gets to go to bear heaven, wander round and eat as much fish as he likes." Tom Builder

That's what the bears get, but what about the humans? It depends on who you listen to, unfortunately, and their interpretation of your deeds. No doubt Bishop Waleran believes Tom Builder will be heading for a very warm place now that he has been speared by William Hamleigh. Prior Philip might think differently. Either way, the visionary architect of Kingsbridge Cathedral is dead and, unlike Jack, he won't be coming back.

Chaos has been ever present in The Pillars of the Earth, be that in the drama itself or the production. After last week's change of royal family and round of torturings and hangings, though, even more is left swinging in the air this week. Will Jack have the maturity to see Tom's project through? Will Stephen's attempts to reclaim the throne be resisted? Will the priory of Kingsbridge surive? I think I know the answers to all these questions, but I'm not sure and for once I'm grateful for having been left in some doubt.

Tom's death, when it came, was the most unlikely event of the hour. There was never much of an explanation as to why – what led Tom to stand vulnerable and entranced in the town square as Hamleigh reared around looking for fresh victims. Perhaps Tom knew it was his fate to die that day, perhaps that's what occasioned the whole bear chat with his lost son (now plump monk) Robert. On the other hand, perhaps the episode just needed a murder.

It was a confusing, but also sad end to by far the strongest hour of this drama so far. The dialogue – often corny in previous episodes – was taut and vivid here. The political machinations, previously of the GCSE variety, were furious and complex. What's more, there was real light and shade added to central characters. Hamleigh shifted from being a man with a temper and unresolved oedipal issues to a fully fledged agent of destruction. "I say destruction is a work of art and requires significant talent," says Walter, Hamleigh's partner in pillage. "You have a gift, William, let's make your mother proud."

As for that mother, Regan was forced to confront the limits of her powers. She wants more from Waleran than he needs from her. To correct that imbalance, she offers the dastardly bishop a quick cassock-trembler. Her offer is rebuffed – and quite sharply – leaving Regan without a plan. Her family's continued prosperity suddenly becomes all the more dependent on her son's rapaciousness.

All that said, I'm still not interested in Alfred, Tom's flesh-and-blood son. This week he went from perving out Aliena in a lake to saving her from immolation via a late-night statuary-smashing session. He's a spoilt brat, but is capable of calculated acts of gallantry and that combination doesn't interest me much. I also can't quite get beyond the fact that every single facial expression the boy musters is some close relative of gormlessness.

Next week, I predict the continuing rise of brother Jack, limited only perhaps by the temptations of the flesh. I also hope to see more of Aliena's burgeoning fleece business. Her stock may have been burned by Hamleigh, but the woman's an entrepreneur. In buying Philip's wool a year before it's ready she's started trading futures 600 years before the Japanese built the first futures exchange. Adam Smith, eat your heart out.